The University of La Verne is thrilled to announce the exhibition of Action painter Rotem Reshef and her newest work, Time Traveler, a large-scale installation made of interwoven, hand-painted canvas scrolls that will cover a 400 x 554 inch wall. Time Traveler will go on view in the Tall Wall Space art gallery beginning September 5, 2017 with an opening reception October 12. The exhibit will close December 15, 2017. For Time Traveler, Reshef has created six scrolls of paintings interwoven horizontally and vertically into a beautiful, color-blended grid. Based on the seasons, four vertical hanging scrolls will depict Summer and Winter, while the transitional seasons of Fall and Spring will be depicted by the two remaining horizontal scrolls. The entire installation casts the four seasons as the passage of time, with each season interlacing to form one cohesive tapestry. “Each painting depicts varied techniques, color schemes and atmosphere I explored during the time I was working on it,” explains Reshef. “Perhaps as a reflection of the era we are living in, where we are being flooded by images in a non-linear way from all directions, these six scroll paintings are not exhibited separately but together, interwoven in a collision of simultaneous climates.”
In Time Traveler, Reshef is not just paying homage to the seasons, but exploring the paradox of how we use them as a tool to measure time. “Although this repetition of seasons occurs every year, it never repeats in the same way,” says Reshef. “Each season of every year, is one-of-a-kind creation of nature that disappears, only to re-emerge again, differently.” By that same token, if Reshef were to do another set of six scrolls depicting the four seasons, the randomness and spontaneity of her artistic process and technique would create a completely different body of work.
Time Traveler is the third in a series of large-scale installation works made by the process of imprinting, where canvases are covered in paint and then pressed with plastic sheets and other materials to create shapes and texture. For Time Traveler, she even expanded to organic imprinting materials, including threads, leaves and pieces of wood. “For this work I chose an additional unique feature to imprint for every season: leaves for fall, ribbons for spring, raffia, straw-like, for summer and some bubble wrap and cellophane for winter,” Reshef explains. In keeping with the theme of time traveling, she decided to re-use the same plastics and threads in the creation of all the paintings as a symbol to the continuity of time.
About Rotem Reshef
Rotem Reshef is a process-driven abstract Action painter based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and New York. Reshef’s works are regularly shown in solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Her most recent shows include the group exhibition “9xArtist Walls” at ArtSpace TLV Gallery, the group exhibitions “In My Garden” in the West Village, NY, Aiming for Touch(down) at P8 gallery, Tel Aviv (2017), and the dual exhibition “Phantom Stream” at Kibbutz Be’eri gallery (2016). Her most recent solo exhibitions were “Control l Release” at ArtSpace Tel Aviv (2016) and “Making a Mark,” School of Visual Arts, New York (2015). Reshef is a graduate of Hamidrasha Art college, Israel (1988), and holds a Masters degree from Reinwardt Academie, Amsterdam (2004). She won an Honorable Mention in LICC, London International Creative Competition (2014), the first prize in Art & Business category at Arte Laguna competition, Italy (2010). In 2015 Reshef participated in the residency program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), NY. Her works are found in private collections in USA, Israel, Europe and Australia. Visit www.rotemreshef.com for her complete bio.